Kathy McConnell Action Plan: Increase and improve multicultural literature in our collection.
Part 1 - Rationale The American Library Association has identified diversity as one of the five key action areas to address in order to provide the highest quality library and information services for all people. Additionally, the ALA recommends that librarians “Include a full range of voices in the library's collection that speak to the experiences of diverse groups that have contributed to the history and culture of our nation. Seek to include new and diverse authors, illustrators and publishers. Invite alternative voices to tell their stories…” (http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/missionhistory/keyactionareas/morediversity/diversitybrochure.cfm)In order to address this key area, the mission of the Beuford Franklin Edison High School Media Center states, in part, that we strive to “improve quality of life through diverse ideas.” Our outdated and small collection lacks the diverse materials our school library needs in order to fully satisfy our mission. As a result, we have a critical need to increase and improve our collection in this area.
Furthermore, improving the diversity of our collection is in line with the following strategic outcomes and objectives stated in our plan:
1. Collection development in the school library media center reflects the diversity and changing needs of the students and faculty.
2. We will increase and update our collection with a focus on quality, currency, student interest, diversity, special needs, and professional resources to enhance recreational reading appreciation, better meet our community needs, and provide opportunities for print research skills within our facility.
In order to achieve these goals, this Action Plan seeks to both improve and increase our collection of materials to address the ethnic and cultural diversity needs of our students and staff so that students will be better prepared to succeed academically and to become productive citizens. The BFE Media Center wishes to offer students materials which represent the various cultures and ethnicities of our student body and larger community. Children benefit from seeing positive images and representations of people who are members of their own ethnic and cultural groups. Additionally, the BFE Media Center believes that all students benefit from exposure to cultures and ethnicities other than their own in order to develop a healthy perspective and appreciation for the diversity which is a part of our lives. At BFE High, both our vision and our mission statements indicate this belief in opening the minds of students to the diverse world in which we live.
Part 2 - Steps/Timeline/Responsibility
Step #1: Consult and analyze demographic information to identify which ethnicities and cultures are represented in the school, the school district, and county. Timeline: April 2010 Responsibility: SLMS
Step #2: Research types of materials that would be most appropriate for a school library and which materials will be most beneficial for our school’s specific needs, keeping in mind make-up of student body, activities pursued by teachers and students, and by consulting prior records of student and teacher requests. Teachers will be consulted about what types of materials would support lesson plans and/or classroom projects for the coming school year. Timeline: April 2010 Responsibility: SLMS will coordinate research and meetings with teachers.
Step #3: Weed the current collection to remove outdated or insensitive materials, keeping in mind current recommendations from professional organizations and literature, stated needs from teachers, and prior teacher and student requests. Any current materials which are popular may be kept in the collection if they meet professional recommendations. Any current materials that are not popular (low circulation) but do meet professional standards may be kept and the librarian may consider re-binding, repairing, or displaying in a more attractive way to increase circulation of these materials. Timeline: March 2010 – April 2010 Responsibility: SLMS will coordinate and oversee weeding project. Assistant and volunteers may work on weeding also by pulling books using a list provided by the SLMS.
Step #4: Search for appropriate and affordable materials. SLMS will consult catalogs and recommendation lists from reputable sources. Attention will be paid to award-winning books, editorial reviews, and recommendations from other professional sources. Timeline: April 2010 Responsibility: SLMS will be primarily responsible for searching for materials, but will invite teachers to provide purchasing information about cultural and ethnic materials which would be particularly helpful to their curriculum.
Step #5: Making final choices and order materials for purchase. Timeline: April 2010 Responsibility: SLMS
Step #6: Processing and integrating new materials into current collection. SLMS will catalog and display new books in a way to make them most usable and shelve in appropriate areas. Timeline: As soon as materials arrive, then ongoing. Responsibility: SLMS will oversee displays and shelving. SLMS may delegate to Assistant Librarian and volunteers.
Step #7: SLMS will keep a file for diverse materials information including book lists, professional recommendations, catalogs and other ordering information as well as book suggestions from teachers and students. The SLMS will continually consult this file when weeding and purchasing in order to maintain a dynamic collection of ethnically and culturally diverse materials which benefits the students and staff at BFE High. Timeline: Ongoing Responsibility: SLMS
Part 3 - Budget
Materials: $1000
The funds for purchasing materials will come from the media center’s book budget. Since a lack of culturally and ethnically diverse materials has been identified as a particular weakness in the outdated collection, part of the book budget will be used during this fiscal year for the purpose of bringing the library more up to speed in this area. The media center will spend $1000 to purchase books which will enhance cultural and ethnic diversity in our collection. We typically find that the average cost per book for grades 6 and up is $14.59. With this average in mind, we hope to be able to purchase at least 68 new books. We will strive to make the funds go as far as possible without compromising quality. It should be noted that the same books purchased for the purpose of adding diversity to our collection will simultaneously serve other needs of students such as pleasure reading and regular school assignments, so that money spent on diverse materials does not necessarily take away from other budget areas - but rather, these books may fill more than one area of need in our library.
Part 4 - Evaluation
The SLMS will evaluate the response to the culturally and ethnically diverse materials by monitoring circulation statistics of these new additions to the collection. SLMS will also ask for feedback from teachers and students. Teachers will be asked to give specific feedback regarding the usefulness of the new materials for class assignments or projects in which the materials were used. A future and continuous way to evaluate the diversity of the collection will be to monitor circulation of materials and teacher/student requests to meet the needs of users as closely as possible.
Kathy McConnell
Action Plan: Increase and improve multicultural literature in our collection.
Part 1 - Rationale
The American Library Association has identified diversity as one of the five key action areas to address in order to provide the highest quality library and information services for all people. Additionally, the ALA recommends that librarians “Include a full range of voices in the library's collection that speak to the experiences of diverse groups that have contributed to the history and culture of our nation. Seek to include new and diverse authors, illustrators and publishers. Invite alternative voices to tell their stories…” (http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/missionhistory/keyactionareas/morediversity/diversitybrochure.cfm) In order to address this key area, the mission of the Beuford Franklin Edison High School Media Center states, in part, that we strive to “improve quality of life through diverse ideas.” Our outdated and small collection lacks the diverse materials our school library needs in order to fully satisfy our mission. As a result, we have a critical need to increase and improve our collection in this area.
Furthermore, improving the diversity of our collection is in line with the following strategic outcomes and objectives stated in our plan:
1. Collection development in the school library media center reflects the diversity and changing needs of the students and faculty.
2. We will increase and update our collection with a focus on quality, currency, student interest, diversity, special needs, and professional resources to enhance recreational reading appreciation, better meet our community needs, and provide opportunities for print research skills within our facility.
In order to achieve these goals, this Action Plan seeks to both improve and increase our collection of materials to address the ethnic and cultural diversity needs of our students and staff so that students will be better prepared to succeed academically and to become productive citizens. The BFE Media Center wishes to offer students materials which represent the various cultures and ethnicities of our student body and larger community. Children benefit from seeing positive images and representations of people who are members of their own ethnic and cultural groups. Additionally, the BFE Media Center believes that all students benefit from exposure to cultures and ethnicities other than their own in order to develop a healthy perspective and appreciation for the diversity which is a part of our lives. At BFE High, both our vision and our mission statements indicate this belief in opening the minds of students to the diverse world in which we live.
Part 2 - Steps/Timeline/Responsibility
Step #1: Consult and analyze demographic information to identify which ethnicities and cultures are represented in the school, the school district, and county.
Timeline: April 2010
Responsibility: SLMS
Step #2: Research types of materials that would be most appropriate for a school library and which materials will be most beneficial for our school’s specific needs, keeping in mind make-up of student body, activities pursued by teachers and students, and by consulting prior records of student and teacher requests. Teachers will be consulted about what types of materials would support lesson plans and/or classroom projects for the coming school year.
Timeline: April 2010
Responsibility: SLMS will coordinate research and meetings with teachers.
Step #3: Weed the current collection to remove outdated or insensitive materials, keeping in mind current recommendations from professional organizations and literature, stated needs from teachers, and prior teacher and student requests. Any current materials which are popular may be kept in the collection if they meet professional recommendations. Any current materials that are not popular (low circulation) but do meet professional standards may be kept and the librarian may consider re-binding, repairing, or displaying in a more attractive way to increase circulation of these materials.
Timeline: March 2010 – April 2010
Responsibility: SLMS will coordinate and oversee weeding project. Assistant and volunteers may work on weeding also by pulling books using a list provided by the SLMS.
Step #4: Search for appropriate and affordable materials. SLMS will consult catalogs and recommendation lists from reputable sources. Attention will be paid to award-winning books, editorial reviews, and recommendations from other professional sources.
Timeline: April 2010
Responsibility: SLMS will be primarily responsible for searching for materials, but will invite teachers to provide purchasing information about cultural and ethnic materials which would be particularly helpful to their curriculum.
Step #5: Making final choices and order materials for purchase.
Timeline: April 2010
Responsibility: SLMS
Step #6: Processing and integrating new materials into current collection. SLMS will catalog and display new books in a way to make them most usable and shelve in appropriate areas.
Timeline: As soon as materials arrive, then ongoing.
Responsibility: SLMS will oversee displays and shelving. SLMS may delegate to Assistant Librarian and volunteers.
Step #7: SLMS will keep a file for diverse materials information including book lists, professional recommendations, catalogs and other ordering information as well as book suggestions from teachers and students. The SLMS will continually consult this file when weeding and purchasing in order to maintain a dynamic collection of ethnically and culturally diverse materials which benefits the students and staff at BFE High.
Timeline: Ongoing
Responsibility: SLMS
Part 3 - Budget
Materials: $1000
The funds for purchasing materials will come from the media center’s book budget. Since a lack of culturally and ethnically diverse materials has been identified as a particular weakness in the outdated collection, part of the book budget will be used during this fiscal year for the purpose of bringing the library more up to speed in this area. The media center will spend $1000 to purchase books which will enhance cultural and ethnic diversity in our collection. We typically find that the average cost per book for grades 6 and up is $14.59. With this average in mind, we hope to be able to purchase at least 68 new books. We will strive to make the funds go as far as possible without compromising quality. It should be noted that the same books purchased for the purpose of adding diversity to our collection will simultaneously serve other needs of students such as pleasure reading and regular school assignments, so that money spent on diverse materials does not necessarily take away from other budget areas - but rather, these books may fill more than one area of need in our library.
Part 4 - Evaluation
The SLMS will evaluate the response to the culturally and ethnically diverse materials by monitoring circulation statistics of these new additions to the collection. SLMS will also ask for feedback from teachers and students. Teachers will be asked to give specific feedback regarding the usefulness of the new materials for class assignments or projects in which the materials were used. A future and continuous way to evaluate the diversity of the collection will be to monitor circulation of materials and teacher/student requests to meet the needs of users as closely as possible.
Documentation
African American Review (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at http://aar.slu.edu/.
American Indian Library Association (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.ailanet.org/.
American Library Association (2009). Diversity brochure. Accessed November 22, 2009 at
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/missionhistory/keyactionareas/morediversity/diversitybrochure.cfm.
Association for Library Services to Children (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/index.cfm
Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009
at http://oncampus.richmond.edu/faculty/ASAIL/.
Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.dawcl.com/introduction.html.
Kane/Miller Book Publishers (2009). Award winning children’s books from around the world.
Accessed November 24, 2009 at http://www.kanemiller.com/about.asp.
Kirk House Publishers (2009). Multicultural books. Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.kirkhouse.com/Multicultural-Books.
Lee and Low Books (2009). New voices award. Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.leeandlow.com/p/new_voices_award.mhtml.
Multicultural Educational Publishing (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://mcepub.com/.
Oyate (2009). Books to avoid. Accessed November 24, 2009 at http://www.oyate.org/books-to-
avoid/index.html
PermaBound (2009). Suggested booklists. Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.perma-bound.com/
Thomas Rivera Book Award (2009). Accessed November 24, 2009 at
http://www.education.txstate.edu/departments/Tomas-Rivera-Book-Award-Project-Link.html